Pavlik bummed about ESPY, excited about Calzaghe


Bleary-eyed and still a little bummed over losing the ESPY to Floyd Mayweather just a few hours before, middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik arrived at the airport in Los Angeles around 7 a.m. Thursday to await his vacation flight to Hawaii.

“It was an honor to be there,” he said of Wednesday’s ESPY Awards ceremony, which honored the top athletes and teams from 2007. “But I was bummed I didn’t win.”

Mayweather won the “Fighter of the Year” ESPY for the second straight year, beating out four other fighters, including Pavlik and super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe.

Because of his hectic schedule, Pavlik didn’t hear about Calzaghe’s comments regarding a future fight with the South Sider. Calzaghe told his hometown paper that he won’t surrender his WBO super middleweight title and might fight Pavlik at that weight after his light heavyweight bout with Roy Jones Jr. in September.

Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) had hinted at retirement after the Jones bout.

“I hope he’s telling the truth,” Pavlik said. “We really wanted that fight this time but he decided to fight Roy Jones.

“I’d like to fight him.”

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